Resource Revenues can be a "Blessing for Education" – EFA Report

Ghana Business News reports that, according to a paper published by UNESCO, Ghana could increase its budget for education significantly by better managing its revenues from the mining and oil industry. The report also analyzes other countries' potential to improve education with money from resource revenues.

According to the calculations of the paper, Ghana could raise $700 million a year for education if 30% of its share of mineral resources and 75% of its oil resources were converted into public revenue and 20% of this sum invested in education. “This amount is over four times the money Ghana receives in aid to education each year, and would result in an increase of 43% in the government’s education budget,” it adds.

The UNESCO “Education for All Global Monitoring Report” paper titled “Turning the resource curse into a blessing for education,” gives examples of the revenue that natural resources could bring to education, and shows that 17 of the developing countries analysed could finance access to primary school for 86% of their out-of-school children or 42% of their out of school adolescents, if they managed their revenues from natural resources better.